A clinical Justin Rose held his nerve to secure the Farmers Insurance Open title at Torrey Pines with a tournament-record 23 under par total.
The 45-year-old Englishman, who took a six-shot lead into the final day – the biggest 54-hole lead at the tournament since Tiger Woods’ eight in 2008 – barely faltered as he carded a fourth-round 70 which included three birdies and a single dropped shot on the South Course to win by seven.
It was Rose’s 13th PGA Tour victory and netted him prize money of 1.73million US dollars, around £1.26m.
The winner told Sky Sports: “Today obviously wasn’t my lowest score, but it was a good score. I felt like I played well, I felt like I did all the right things, I felt like I didn’t get myself in any predicaments.
“I never let my guard down. There are other things to play for – to have a tournament record, 23 under, I was keenly aware of that. It was an amazing week. Everything seemed to be heading in that direction, 36, 54, 72, I was scoring records.
“I just wanted to finish off as strongly as I could.”
Rose took a calm approach to pressing home his advantage, opening up with five successive pars, although it was then that he pressed the accelerator with birdies at the sixth, eighth and ninth holes to reach the turn in 33.
A bogey at the 12th was Rose’s only blemish as he walked onto the 18th tee seven shots ahead of the field having parred seven of his first eight holes on the way back.
His approach shot to the final green was conservative to say the least and left him with a putt of almost 35 feet, but he rolled his first attempt close enough to make his second a formality.
American Pierceson Coody’s 65 secured him a share of second place alongside Si Woo Kim and Ryo Hisatsune, who both had final-round 69s.
Joel Dahmen, who had started the day as Rose’s closest challenger, endured an eventful outward nine, which included bogeys at the fourth, eighth and ninth holes either side of back-to-back birdies, and then carded a five at the par-four 12th as he finished with a 73 and tied for seventh.
